Trading of Vertex Common Stock Halted Today

-Advisory Committee for the Food and Drug Administration reviewing
the telaprevir New Drug Application for the treatment of hepatitis C-

April 28, 2011 07:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: VRTX) announced that NASDAQ
today halted trading of the company's common stock. The United States
Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee
meets today in Silver Spring, MD to review the New Drug Application
(NDA) for telaprevir.

The NDA for telaprevir was granted Priority Review by the FDA, and the
FDA is expected to make a decision on the approval of telaprevir by May
23, 2011 under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA). The NDA
includes data from three registration studies, ADVANCE, ILLUMINATE and
REALIZE, which evaluated telaprevir in combination with
pegylated-interferon and ribavirin in people who were not treated
previously and in the three major subgroups of people who were treated
previously but who were not cured with currently available medicines –
relapsers, partial responders and null responders. For complete
information on the telaprevir clinical trials or a fact sheet on the
trial designs visit: http://investors.vrtx.com/press.cfm.

About Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is a serious liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus,
which is spread through direct contact with the blood of infected people
and ultimately affects the liver.i Chronic hepatitis C can
lead to serious and life-threatening liver problems, including liver
damage, cirrhosis, liver failure or liver cancer.i Though
many people with hepatitis C may not experience symptoms, others may
have symptoms such as fatigue, fever, jaundice and abdominal pain.i

Unlike HIV and hepatitis B virus, chronic hepatitis C is curable.ii
However, approximately 60 percent of people who undergo treatment with
an initial 48-week regimen of pegylated-interferon and ribavirin, the
currently approved medicines for genotype 1 hepatitis C, do not achieve
SVR,iii,iv,v or viral cure.vi If treatment is not
successful and a person does not achieve a viral cure, they remain at an
increased risk for progressive liver disease.vii,viii

More than 170 million people worldwide are chronically infected with
hepatitis C.vi In the United States, nearly 4 million people
have chronic hepatitis C and 75 percent of them are unaware of their
infection.ix Hepatitis C is four times more prevalent in the
U.S. compared to HIV.ix The majority of people with hepatitis
C in the United States were born between 1946 and 1964, accounting for
two of every three people with chronic hepatitis C.x
Hepatitis C is the leading cause of liver transplantations in the United
States and is reported to contribute to 4,600 to 12,000 deaths annually.
xi,xii By 2029, total annual medical costs in the United States
for people with hepatitis C are expected to more than double, from $30
billion in 2009 to approximately $85 billion.ix

About Telaprevir

Telaprevir is an investigational, oral inhibitor that acts directly on
the hepatitis C virus protease, an enzyme essential for viral
replication. More than 2,800 people with hepatitis C have received
telaprevir-based combination therapy as part of Phase 2 and Phase 3
studies. The Phase 3 registration studies, ADVANCE, ILLUMINATE and
REALIZE, evaluated telaprevir (750 mg, taken three times daily) in
combination with Pegasys® (pegylated-interferon alfa-2a) and
Copegus® (ribavirin) in people with hepatitis C who had not
been treated before as well as those who were treated before but not
cured with a prior treatment course of pegylated-interferon and
ribavirin.

Vertex is developing telaprevir in collaboration with Tibotec BVBA and
Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma. Vertex has rights to commercialize telaprevir
in North America. Through its affiliate, Janssen, Tibotec has rights to
commercialize telaprevir in Europe, South America, Australia, the Middle
East and certain other countries. Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma has rights to
commercialize telaprevir in Japan and certain Far East countries.

About Vertex

Vertex creates new possibilities in medicine. Our team aims to discover,
develop and commercialize innovative therapies so people with serious
diseases can lead better lives.

Vertex scientists and our collaborators are working on new medicines to
cure or significantly advance the treatment of hepatitis C, cystic
fibrosis, epilepsy and other life-threatening diseases.

Founded more than 20 years ago in Cambridge, MA, we now have ongoing
worldwide research programs and sites in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

Special Note About Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including a
statement regarding the expectation that the FDA will make a decision on
approval of telaprevir by May 23, 2011. While the company believes the
forward-looking statements contained in this press release are accurate,
there are a number of factors that could cause actual events or results
to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking
statements. Those risks and uncertainties include, among other things,
that Vertex could experience unforeseen delays in obtaining approval to
market telaprevir and the other risks listed under Risk Factors in
Vertex's annual report and quarterly reports filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission and available through Vertex's website at www.vrtx.com.
Vertex disclaims any obligation to update the information contained in
this press release as new information becomes available.